Art From Another Corner of the House

Posted on January 8, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….even though I haven’t found time to make art in the last 6 weeks my husband has

For about a year now my husband has been making cartoon drawings every day for our granddaughter. Certain days have themes like Monster Monday and Fishy Fridays. For this past Christmas Winnie gave her Papa a set of markers so that he could add more colour to his drawings.

When I first met Kevin, back at University, he had just finished a graphic design program at his local college and he worked as a graphic designer for the Ministry of Agriculture. When he switched careers in his mid 30s I was a little sad that he gave up his art but his job was changing with the times and computers were the way to go in the graphic design business. Unfortunately the first computers were very expensive and with a young family to think about he switched careers and his artistic side was put on the back burner.

Over the year I’ve seen his confidence grow and his drawings are developing a unique style of their own. This past week he’s gotten a bit of a head start on his drawings and he’s created six birds and a rabbit. Winnie loves to name them or she asks her Papa to give them names, which she often declares are silly. Here are his latest creations.

I’d love to create a children’s book around some of these characters.

Aliens and Tropical Drinks

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….days 115 and 116 of the 365 Days of Art

I’ve returned to my 500 Drawing Book Prompts and made two more drawings.

What’s a Snoopy Party?

Posted on April 22, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….day 81 of 365 Days of Art

On Friday our granddaughter requested that everyone coming over for lunch on Saturday wear a Snoopy t-shirt. Our oldest daughter was the only one who could honour that request so Oma and Papa went to work looking for Snoopy clipart. I knew I had t-shirt transfer sheets so it was just a matter of choosing the design and finding some plain t-shirts that we didn’t mind messing up if things didn’t go as plan.

The first shirt did get messed up and I had to hand draw the lower half of Snoopy with a black Sharpie. The next two worked out much better.

I asked my daughter-in-law what colour t-shirt she wanted for her Snoopy Shirt. When she said black I knew that I couldn’t use the transfer sheets that I had so I researched how to transfer designs onto to black or dark fabric. It turns out that there is a special transfer paper designed for dark colours.

I made a quick trip to Michael’s and found the special sheets that I needed and the t-shirts were on sale, buy two and get one free. I picked up three new shirts and decided on the spot that I had to make shirts for daughter #2 and her husband. I loved how easy it was to use the special paper for dark colours and was very happy with the outcome. I think everyone loved their shirts.

365 Days of Art – Part 2 of Tape n’Stuff

Posted on April 18, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..day 79

I went back to some of the one-liner birds that I had done and decided to redraw two of them onto the taped and collaged background that I created yesterday. After I lightly drew the shape onto the collaged surface I took acrylic white paint and filled in the shape. After it dried completely I used a Koi Colouring Brush Pen in black and outlined the shape and added a few details. I then applied some water with a brush to the black marks to soften them and create shadow.

Here is the first completed piece:

365 Days of Art – Adding Colour to One-liners

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..Judith over at Curious to the Max suggested I try adding colour to my one-liners

So for day 76 I took another page of birds created with one continuous line and added colour with markers and then added more line detail.

365 Days of Art – Enhancing My One-liners

Posted on April 15, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..day 75

Back in January, Carla Sonheim gave us an assignment to create multiple one-liners of birds, cats, flowers, houses or anything that tickled our fancy. I started them in a brand new sketch book and I’ve done some things since that I’m quite proud of. The one-liners, however, didn’t thrill me. On the first page I had drawn five different birds and every time I open the book that is the first thing I see. Today I decided to enhance or edit those birds. I should have taken a photo of the whole page before I made the changes but I didn’t. Going back through my photographs I did find one of the birds from a similar page. Here it is:

I’m much happier with my new rendition.

365 Days of Art – Seuss-like Little Girl

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..day 61

I’ve started trying to create my own Seuss-like characters and started with trying to create a little girl around my granddaughter’s age. My husband thinks our granddaughter is too photogenic to be made into a cartoon figure. I have an idea of creating a scene where the little girl is holding a gigantic Easter egg while a giant rabbit looks down on her. Here are the first three sketches of the little girl.

365 Days of Art – Day 60

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…this will be the last of my Dr. Seuss characters

After today I think I’m ready to create my own Dr. Seuss like character. Not sure what it will look like but I have a better appreciation of what a Seuss like character should look like.

365 Days of Art – Day 59

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….more examples of Dr. Seuss characters

Dr. Seuss often employed long eyelashes with his characters and loved exaggerated features like the feathers on the head of this bird and the long intertwining legs.

365 Days of Art – Day 58

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..planning on creating a Dr. Seuss like character

For one of my year long assignments with Carla Sonheim I’m suppose to come up with my own Dr. Seuss like character. I decided to study some of Dr. Seuss’ illustrations and see what common characteristics they have. One is the u shape inside the large oval eyes that he uses for most of his characters. The mouth line is just a simple curve ending with a curved cheek line. Here are two practice drawings that I copied from his book What Pet Should I Get?